Success!

So that class I couldn't find yesterday turned out to be in the building I initially thought it was in....yay stupid mistakes! It was in a small lecture hall with long wooden desks with folding chairs attached. There were maybe 50 students total and several english speaking students that I heard chatting. The class was an hour long and the professor sat on stage and discussed the historical background of Goya's painting. I understood her well and actually found her pretty funny. I'm excited about this class. After lecture I went to ask her if it would be possible to take the final exam early (Spanish students take exams in February, and as my flight leaves Dec. 20th, that's not really an option) and she said that would be ok. This is good news because some teachers are difficult and won't let you take their class if you leave that early. 

So....Granada!? 

Granada was really nice. It is a city of 240,000 people so it was pretty manageable to see the sites in a weekend (and it is only 4.5 hours away from Madrid). We first visited La Alhambra, which is a moorish fortress built by the Moorish rulers of Granada and completed around 1340. It a very popular tourist attraction as it is a prime example of the islamic influence in Spain. There is a lot to see at this fortress and my friends and I probably spent 3 hours touring the palace, military fortress, and gardens. Not bad for 13 euro. Oh yea, the palace was beautiful. The walls are all either carved out in great detail or covered in shiny ceramic tiles of greens, teals, yellows, and browns.  Here is the group standing in a courtyard with a pool:

                                           (Anna, Erica, Claire, Emily, me, and Bethany)

Before I came here to Spain I read that like most countries the people in the southern parts are nicer. I wasn't in Granada long enough to evaluate the behavior of the inhabitants, but they definitely seemed more laid back. The people were not as dressed up, and I saw more dredlocks than I did on a trip to Vermont this summer. The city had a cool vibe. I'm glad I'm not studying in Granada because I feel like I would get sick of the same streets/ small city , but I recommend it to anyone in Spain who wants to travel for a weekend or maybe a little longer. 

This is a view of La Alhambra from across the valley at the lookout El Mirador de San Nicolas. We hiked up the narrow streets at sunset to get the other perspective of the fortress. It was a bit cloudy and the sunset wasn't spectacular but still was pretty nice. 

                                              (La Alhambra from Mirador San Nicolas)

I got my first hostel experience on this trip, and as a whole I would say it was pretty favorable. It was clean, quiet, and they gave us a free breakfast.....aka toast.  We stayed in a backpackers hostel so there was a range of people - some hard core backpackers with large packs, some wandering Europeans both older and younger, several Australians, Asians, and us. I'm not sure if there were any other americans. English was definitely the main language used to communicate between everyone though.  I stayed in a room with 12 people. It was fine for me, and the people in my immediate room were very nice.  I can't wait to go to some other hostels and meet more travelers.